Fruitful Branches

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JOHN 15:1-8

John 15:1–8 (NKJV)
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
the main truth that Christ is teaching in this parable is the importance of abiding in Him in order to bear fruit.
The main point of the teaching here is fellowship, not sonship.
FRUIT - Is considered the product of life

Fruit – is used figuratively in the Bible to represent 7 Things...

1. Repentance (Matt 3:8) [JOHN THE BAPTIST] 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance,
The Pharisees were legal literalists who turned the law into a burden; the Sadducees were “liberals” who denied much of the OT (see Acts 23:8). 8 For Sadducees say that there is no resurrection—and no angel or spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.
John the Baptist was repremanding them and telling them that they needed to start doing things that were worthy of repentance and stop doing the things that they were known for…legalism and denial.
2. Christian Graces (Gal. 5:22-23) [Paul to the Galatians] 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Those who live according to law depend on the energy of the flesh; those who live by grace depend on the power of the Spirit. To “walk in the Spirit” means to have our daily lives under His control, and this means under the direction of the Word of God. To be “led of the Spirit” means to be delivered from a life of bondage to that same type of legalism that the pharasees pushed in their day.
3. Holy Life (Proverbs 11:30) 30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And he who wins souls is wise.
As a result (fruit) of righteous living a person becomes a tree of life (cf. 3:18; 13:12; 15:4), a source of a meaningful life for others
4. Christian Converts (John 4:36) [Christ teaching the disciples]36 And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
When Jesus told his disciples this, it was when they had come to Samaria. Jesus had just witnessed to the woman at the well. You see, while the diciples were out trying to find physical food, Jesus was sharing spiritual food, winning souls. This is the example that Christ set for us as a soul winner.
5. Christ (Psalms 132:11) 11 The Lord has sworn in truth to David; He will not turn from it: “I will set upon your throne the fruit (offspring) of your body.
These verses discuss a revelation from the Lord confirming His earlier promises to David. The Lord promised David that descendants of his would sit on David’s throne forever. Of course, Jesus was a decendant in the line of David.
6. Sinful Life ( Matthew 7:16) [Jesus on False Prophets]16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
“False prophets” does not only mean false preachers who proclaim a false gospel, but primarily false professors of faith in Christ. In other words, someone who claims faith but has no real faith. Their inward nature has never changed (see 2 Peter 1:4); they wear the outward guise of a sheep. They call Christ “Lord” and even do religious deeds, but they have never been saved! How do we determine who these false believers are? How can we tell the difference between true sheep and wolves dressed like sheep? “You will know them by their fruits” (v. 16, NKJV).
What fruits does Christ seek? He seeks:
The fruit of the Spirit, or Christian character as described in the Beatitudes and Gal. 5:22–23;
The fruit of the lips, or… testimony and praise to God (Heb. 13:15);
Holy living (Rom. 6:22); “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”
Good works (Col. 1:10);
Lost souls won to Christ (Rom. 1:13). Professing Christians may be involved in religious groups and activities and just pretend to be saved, but if they are honestly born again, they will reveal these fruits in every day life. You know…these, “counterfeits” are surprised at the judgment! You see, its possible to fool ourselves! Satan blinds the mind (2 Cor. 4:3–4) and deceives people into thinking they are saved. When Christ returns, millions of professing Christians will be surprised to find out they were never saved at all!
Finally, Fruit – is used figuratively in the Bible to represent...
7. Reward of Righteousness (Philippians 1:9-11) [Paul to Philippians] 9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, 11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Paul always took time to pray for people; his prayer here is that the Christians in Philippi might live full lives. He prayed that they might be full of love and insight; that they might be faithful in their daily walk; and that they might be fruitful in Christian service. This was a prayer for Christian maturity.

What is the Key to bearing good fruit?

Verse 5 of John chapter 15 says...
John 15:5 (NKJV)
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Abiding in Christ means a true faith and belief in Jesus Christ. That same faith will allow Christ to abide in you.
JT’s Monster Trucks
My wife and son and I went to the monster truck show yesterday in Bossier City. Now, JT loves monster trucks and has since he was about 3 years old. He has a collection of Monster Jam monster trucks. The last time we counted, he had 105 of these little trucks but he’s gotten more since then. He’s been really excited to go to this monster truck show since we told him about it a few days ago. I’m sure his little wheels were spinning in his head while we waited in line to get in the arena. When we got inside, he was alittle disappointed that there was no dirt on the arena floor. No dirt floor, no dirt ramp, just some old junk cars for the trucks to run over. He also noticed, pretty quick, that there was only 4 monster trucks there. There were delays in the show due to different issues but he was still pretty excited about the fact that he was going to get to see the monster trucks. And an added bonus, he was going to get to see some guys on dirt bikes jumping ramps and doing tricks in the air. We sat and waited for a while, the show started. I wasn’t a really spectacular show and it definately lacked a LOT of things you’d expect to see at a monster truck show. But he was still ok with it. Still knew he was going to see the monster trucks. Well, the time came and the trucks came out. They crushed cars and did donuts on the concrete floor. He cheered and didn’t seem to remember all the things that just weren’t what any of us expected when we bought the tickets. We all hung in there though and still enjoyed it. After the intermission, a transformer car came out onto the floor. This was a turning point, because from the tail end of this space age looking car, shot flames. I immediately noticed JT not looking anymore. The car stopped and began to transform. As it did, a huge cannon came out of it and JT came unglued. He practically jumped over me hollering, “I wanna go now!”. He was scared to death and if I hadn’t gotten up and walked him out, he would have ran over me and ran up the stairs and out of the building by himself. He was scared! You see, he stayed for things that were not exactly what he expected. He hung in there and looked past the delays and equipment failures. But what got him to throw in the towel was fear. He didn’t care about the monster trucks anymore or the motorcycles. He just wanted out.
We treat our faith that way sometimes. Sometimes, we bail out if things aren’t going just the way we thought they would as a Christian. Most of the time, that’s because we never really knew what being a Christian was in the first place. A modern gospel message can do that to someone. Because they have a fear of worldly things but no reverent fear of God. They know about the good news but they know nothing of the law. The law is what convicts us to know that sin is sinful. Without the law, we have no idea what sin is.
Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;”

NOAH’S FAITH

Noah was over 500 years old when God spoke to him and gave him instructions on building the Ark.
Keep in mind that until the flood, there was no rain. Rain had never fell on the earth. Instead, we’re told in th Bible that the plants of the Earth were watered by a mist that came up from the ground
Genesis 2:5–6 NKJV
before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
Taking this into account, and knowing that the whole population of Earth at that time had turned their backs on God, Noah had found grace in the eyes of God. God gave him instructions on building the Ark....and it was a massive undertaking. God told him of the flood. And for a man that had never known rain, he had faith and reverent fear of God and so Noah did as God commanded.
Now I’m pretty sure that, during the time that Noah was building the ark, he was subjected to some persecution by those who knew that he was building this huge Ark. Maybe even from his family members at some point. We don’t really know that, of course. It is believed that it took anywhere between 55 and 75 years for the Ark to actually be built. Lots of time for others to know what was going on. What we do know is that, in the time it took for him to complete the Ark, he wasn’t disuaded in any way. The ark was completed. What an accomplishment for a man to build such a huge boat in that timeframe with hand tools.
This same type of unwaivering faith is what is so key to our Christian lives and to our spiritual maturity. Without this faith, we cannot produce the good fruit that is a result of faith.
James 2:26 NKJV
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
In other words, if fruit is not produced by your faith then the faith that you claim you have, does not exist.
What fruit am I talking about? The fruit that God seeks...Fruit of the spirit, fruit of the lips, holy living, good works, and lost souls won for Christ.

CONCLUSION

Are you producing fruit in your Christian Life?
Do you possess a faith that produces fruit?
If not, you need to re-examine your relationship with Christ. Those good deeds you’ve been doing, you may be doing for your own glory and not for the glory of God. Anything that we do for our own glory (fame, notariety) instead of the glory of God is just wasted time and according to the Bible....a sin. It’s putting yourself ahead of God. Anything we put ahead of God is Idolatry.
In the verses we read in John 15, Jesus said plainly, “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” Do you abide in him? Have you opened your heart and soul to allow Jesus to abide in you? If not, you can do that right now....today....

INVITATION

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